


Something Gold

by thishasbeencary



Series: soulmate aus [1]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Falling In Love, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, but a happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-03
Updated: 2017-03-03
Packaged: 2018-09-28 01:01:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10060592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thishasbeencary/pseuds/thishasbeencary
Summary: A soulmate's mark begins to grow the first time that they see their soulmate, and stops growing when they fall in love. Some grow faster than others, so by the time they've both fallen in love, the marks are the same. Yuuri's mark starts growing one day when he's at the rink as a child, and when Viktor shows up at his family's hot springs, it seemed Viktor's had already stopped growing. Considering their only interaction before this was Yuuri blowing him off at the Grand Prix Final, the similarity of their marks is only an embarrassing coincidence, right?





	

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write a soulmate au. So I did. By taking a popular theme and making it way more complicated than it had to be. 
> 
> Let's talk about how obsessed Viktor is with Yuuri. Literally that mark probably appeared in like ten seconds at the banquet like "wow look at this drunk Japanese boy I love him" whereas Yuuri takes a bit more time to realize that's even possible.
> 
> "Cary, is this fic mostly just Yuuri's internal monologue of doubt and falling in love you wrote in order to procrastinate your homework?" Why, yes, yes it is.
> 
> Hit me up on tumblr at [yoyoplisetsky](https://yoyoplisetsky.tumblr.com/) (yoi side blog) or [cary-onmywaywardson](https://cary-onmywaywardson.tumblr.com/).

They say it starts when you see your soulmate for the first time, and ends when you fall in love. It was frustrating for people who only met in passing, or celebrities, who were almost undoubtedly seen by their soulmate before the other way around. In the end, they matched. At the beginning, it wasn’t always so. Some grew faster, some grew slower. If someone fell in love at first sight, it was said their entire mark appeared at once (though that was incredibly rare). Once you had a mark, you’d have a soulmate, there was no doubt about that.

Yuuri’s mark started when he was young, and thank god they didn’t hurt, because it started on his foot. He was taking off his shoes and socks one day to soak in the hot springs after coming back from a long day at the rink, and saw it – a small gold mark that reminded him of a snowflake. It was strange, though, because everyone he saw at the rink were people he’d seen before – Yuuko, Nishigori, the owners. Sure, there were a few people who were just skating for fun, but most of them were locals, too.

Which meant that he hadn’t seen anyone new that day, not at the rink. The only possibility would be – _oh_. He and Yuuko and Nishigori had been watching that figure skating competition. Could it have been one of the skaters? It was possible for it to start just from seeing someone over the television, especially if they were the only one visible for an extended period of time.

But… well… Yuuri wasn’t the best skater, not by far, so if one of those skaters was his soul mate… They’d be disappointed, probably. Plus, who knows if he’d ever _fall in love_ with them. Maybe he’d be unfortunate and his mark would spiral up from his foot and around his leg and then just take over his whole body until he was shamed because everyone could tell what had happened or –

Except that was virtually unheard of. It was basically accepted that if your mark started to grow, one day you would find your soulmate and fall in love. There were plenty of people whose mark never started, but he knew of no one whose mark hadn’t stopped.

His kept growing, though. By the time he was sixteen, it was wrapped all around his foot to the point that he refused to go anywhere near anyone else without at least socks on. By twenty, it was spiraling up his leg, too. By twenty-three, the spindling arms of the snowflake (which it looked much less like now. Now it looked like… a spider? A very long-armed snowflake?) went nearly to his knee, and he refused to wear anything that didn’t cover it around most people.

Sure, people knew about it. His parents knew about it, his sister. Yuuko and Nishigori, Minako. He couldn’t avoid telling Phichit or Celestino either with how large it was getting.

His soul mark wasn’t the only thing growing, though, because so was his obsession with skating (and, in particular, with Viktor Nikiforov). It wasn’t even the fact that Viktor had been in that competition when his soul mark started growing (once, in what felt like a fever dream, Yuuri had imagined that _Viktor Nikiforov_ was his soul mate before realizing how ridiculous that was), it was just how _amazing_ the other skater was. He got a poodle like Viktor, he got posters of Viktor, he had any piece of merch he had ever come across because he couldn’t imagine ever being like Viktor Nikiforov.

Apparently, his skating skills said otherwise. In a situation that completely shocked Yuuri (despite his friends and family and coach constantly telling him how he really was a good skater), he managed to reach the Grand Prix Final. And, at the Grand Prix Final, he managed to utterly humiliate himself – both as a skater, and in front of Viktor. Who didn’t even know who he was.

And then he couldn’t even make up for that at the banquet, too embarrassed to so much as look at anyone else, sticking by Celestino’s side and wondering why he’d even been forced to come. He was a failure. No one wanted to talk to sixth place. They’d much rather talk to Viktor Nikiforov or Christophe Giacometti, or _anyone_ other than Yuuri.

Shortly after his disastrous Grand Prix Final, he went back home.

Back home, where, _somehow_ , he humiliated himself _more_ by skating Viktor’s routine and a video of it going viral.

What was worse? The video, or the fact that _Viktor Nikiforov_ came to his family home? Was he going to scold Yuuri for doing that? Why would he come all the way to Japan to humiliate him? Maybe he was coming to tell Yuuri he’d done well.

Unbelievably, he had come to Japan to coach Yuuri.

And he was naked when he announced that. Yuuri couldn’t help his eyes from wandering over the Russian man, trying to believe if this situation was true, no matter how embarrassed he felt just for _looking_ at him.

(Viktor Nikiforov wanted to be his _coach_.)

He started his examination of Viktor’s body at his feet, and his heart almost stopped at the winding golden mark that he saw there, but as he continued to look up, to meet his idol’s eyes (and _maybe_ turning bright red along the way because Viktor was _completely naked_ and _looking at him_ like he expected Yuuri knew why he was there), he let that hope fell away. Maybe the bottommost part of Viktor’s mark was the same as Yuuri’s, but Viktor’s spiraled up the rest of his leg and curled around his hip, ending there, in another golden burst, much like the beginning that Yuuri’d compared to a snowflake (Yuuri wondered if it was still growing).

Despite how rude he knew the staring was, he wondered how it was at all possible that he had never seen this before. He’d (god, he couldn’t admit to this anymore, Viktor was _at his home_ ) bought every interview the skater had ever done, and he’d never once mentioned his mark. Not only that, but Yuuri was almost positive that he’d seen Viktor’s legs bare before in one of the spreads, and there was definitely nothing of that size on his body before.

How long had Viktor’s mark been growing for it to be so large? Yuuri thought that _his_ was big, but it was just starting to curl past his knee. How the hell had Viktor hidden that thing?

Did he see a spark of disappointment the first time he and Viktor went to the Hot Springs together and the other man saw that his mark was still spiraling around his knee? He doubted it, why the hell would Viktor make that kind of face at his mark? Viktor’s hadn’t changed at all, hadn’t grown at all. He was already in _love_ , why had he come to coach Yuuri? He was hiding his soul mate no one knew about in Russia, and came all the way to Japan to coach _him._

Yuuri’s mark kept growing throughout the season, and every time he saw the progress, a dumb spark of hope leapt up in him. It was going higher up his leg, reaching his thigh, his hip – looking way too much like Viktor’s. But Viktor’s had stopped growing _months_ ago, probably before he’d even come to Hasetsu. Considering their only interaction before then was Yuuri blowing him off at the Grand Prix and then trying to avoid him at the banquet, it wouldn’t match Yuuri’s.

It was _embarrassing_. Why was it that his mark looked so much like Viktor’s? They were the same golden spirals, wrapping around the foot and ankle, curling up and around their legs, settling right on their hips. Maybe Yuuri’s wouldn’t stop growing, but… by the time it hit his hip, he couldn’t find a single difference from Viktor’s.

He hid it more often, trying to avoid bathing with Viktor, trying to avoid ever dressing in less than at least a pair of sweatpants. By their time in China, it was curling up onto his hip, and Yuuri refused to even take off his shirt around Viktor, because now it _was_ Viktor’s. It would keep growing, he knew, Viktor was already in love, and Yuuri… well, his opinion about Viktor hadn’t changed that much, had it?

Except he knew that it had.

He was no longer just a fan of Viktor’s, but a friend. He trusted Viktor, and despite the man’s cluelessness to so much of how humans worked, he knew he could tell him anything.

Did Viktor know? Maybe he had seen disappointment, and not that their marks didn’t match. Maybe it was disappointment that they _did._ Here Viktor was in Japan, just trying to help out a failed skater, to get his… whatever it was that Viktor was trying to do, and it turned out that he was his _soulmate_.

Yuuri’s anxiety built and built and built and then – Viktor said that he’d take responsibility for any of his mistakes, that he’d leave if he had to, and Yuuri couldn’t help the tears, he couldn’t stop himself. He knew it! He’d known that Viktor would want to leave, because Viktor could see how much Yuuri’s mark looked like his, and he wouldn’t want him, when there was someone so much more deserving back in Russia or something.

At the offer of a kiss, Yuuri only grew angry, and almost _wanted_ Viktor to leave.

But he didn’t. Instead, they got through the competition, and Viktor pushed him onto the ice and kissed him. _Kissed him_. Viktor Nikiforov. Yuuri could feel his heart pounding, and was sure that Viktor could too, but there they were, holding each other on the ice.

He didn’t dare look at his mark, didn’t dare imagine what it might look like. What if it hadn’t stopped growing? _Was_ he Viktor’s soulmate? It didn’t make sense! Viktor’s had stopped so long ago! Before he even knew Yuuri! How could he have fallen in love with him?!

It continued to make no sense, because Viktor didn’t want him. Well, no more than before. Sure, they’d kissed, and they were closer now, but Viktor treated him the same as ever, he was his coach. In Russia, Yuuri competed, and refused to mention the mark.

(Did he see, before he told Viktor to go back to Japan for Makkachin, the older man looking at Yuuri’s hip, wondering? Yuuri hadn’t even dared look at his mark since China, so it seemed irrational, but what if Viktor _did_? What if Viktor had fallen in love with him?)

It wasn’t until their time in Barcelona that Yuuri realized his mark had stopped growing.

Yuuri felt like crying because, yes, it looked _exactly_ like Viktor’s. Viktor. His idol, even if an imperfect human being. He was clueless at times, he’d made Yuuri cry because he didn’t know what else to do (something he was far from forgiven for), but…

He had given Yuuri hope. He’d seen his potential. He’d promised that he was a good skater. And he could blow them all away.

Nonetheless, how had that happened? Viktor had seen him as a dejected fan, and maybe as a depressed skater at the banquet. But, even so, Yuuri could see his mark _still_ curled around his hip, where he’d seen it reach when they were still in China (after Viktor had _kissed him_ ).

Yuuri was too scared to question it, too scared for Viktor to know what he’d discovered, so he… Well, really, it didn’t logically make any sense if he was trying to hide how he felt from Viktor, but he bought them engagement rings. And, maybe, he hid it behind some terrible lie about it being in thanks, but Viktor _knew_ what he meant.

And he accepted, and seemed happy, and Yuuri was even more confused before –

Well, before he found out everything. They went to dinner with his competitors, and at the mention of the banquet from last year…

Oh, god.

“My mark started that night!” Viktor exclaimed, and Yuuri’s face flushed red, because he’d just admitted to everyone that they were soulmates. “It grew so fast, I couldn’t even believe! It was all the way to my thigh by the end of the night!”

Chris, who had seen Viktor’s mark at the pool, mentioned something about how large it was, and Yuuri wanted to bury himself. Not only had he pole-danced for and ground on his idol, everyone at the table now also knew that they were soulmates. At least they hadn’t noticed the –

The engagement rings. Of course, they _were_ noticed when Yuuri covered his face with his hands, and Viktor did nothing to deny them and then –

Oh.

 _Oh_.

Oh, did Yuuri want to win gold.

But, first, he had to tell Viktor. They went back the hotel that night, exhausted, and Yuuri felt his whole body turning red when Viktor’s eyes fell on him, because he was slipping out of his shirt in the middle of the room, something that he hadn’t done before.

“Yuuri?” Viktor’s voice was quiet, but Yuuri didn’t know if he could look at his coach (at his idol, at his friend, at his fiancé, at his _soulmate_ ) without quitting. He set his shirt onto the bed before slowly tugging off his pants, which was clearly all it took, because he heard a gasp from Viktor. “Yuuri?”

“It stopped.” He didn’t know how his voice was so quiet, but it didn’t matter, because he finally looked up, and Viktor was beaming at him, walking forward and immediately cupping his face in his hands, kissing him. Yuuri gave into the kiss, holding onto the front of Viktor’s shirt and just trying to breathe and think it through.

“I love you.” He heard the words before he processed them, really, and simply nodded, before freezing again in Viktor’s arms. Sure, he… sort of knew it, considering both of their marks were stopped in the same place, with the same design, but it was… unreal to hear it out loud. To hear _Viktor Nikiforov_ admit to loving him.

“I love you too.” His voice, maybe quieter than before, but Viktor still heard him, and kissed him again, laughing suddenly.

“When did it stop?” He was _excited_ , and all of Yuuri’s anxiety (about the mark. Not all of his anxiety, that would never happen) melted away, relaxing into Viktor’s arms. No matter how irrational the fear, it was clearly proven wrong now. Viktor wasn’t upset, he was excited.

Really, Yuuri should have known that’s how it would be. “I don’t know. I… uh, haven’t looked at it since China. So. I guess probably… then?” He blushed red again, and Viktor just smiled.

They kissed for most of the night, Viktor refusing to sleep until Yuuri let him take a picture of them with their engagement rings.

He was just glad that he was able to talk Viktor out of showing off their marks for the pair skate exhibition piece they had planned. _That_ would have been at least a step too far – everyone already knew, basically. He was sure that Viktor would announce it to the press the second he got the chance (he did. They stepped off the ice after their pair skate to a swarm of questions, and Viktor had happily proclaimed they were soulmates).

It wasn’t until after the stress of the Grand Prix Final that he asked Viktor what had happened, when he had fallen in love. He was terrified it was at the banquet, and Viktor had fallen in love with a Yuuri that Yuuri tried so hard not to be. But Viktor assured him, no, it wasn’t just because he was a cute drunk, or that he was hanging on him, or a fan, or anything like that. It wasn’t because of his stripping or pole dancing or dance offs. Yes, he’d loved all of those, but it was more.

Viktor said it was his _ambition_. That when Yuuri had looked him in the eyes and begged him to be his coach, he knew. He loved Yuuri because Yuuri wanted to win. And his mark hadn’t stopped growing then, he promised. It wasn’t love at first sight.

Maybe the progress wasn’t visible after he’d gotten to Hasetsu, but Viktor’s mark had apparently been growing. Not necessarily higher on his body, but expanding into more intricate patterns. It hadn’t stopped growing before he’d come. No, his mark stopped growing when Yuuri declared that pork cutlet bowls were his eros, and Viktor had thought, _Wow, I don’t have a chance_.

Both of them were pleasantly surprised, then, when Yuuri’s mark matched, and it turned out Viktor did have a chance with this perfect, blushing, pork-cutlet-bowl-loving man.

Yuuri definitely did not tear up upon hearing Viktor’s side of the story. He did kiss him. Quite a few times.

And quite a few more times when they returned to Japan to eat a pork cutlet bowl of success before they moved to Russia.

Together.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading/kudosing/commenting on this and my other fics <3 Again, feel free to grab me on tumblr to scream about my sons or tell me to write.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [everything that's silver is not gold](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10150454) by [SassySalchow (diedraechin)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/diedraechin/pseuds/SassySalchow)




End file.
